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Il filo d’Arianna Imagine one of the most exciting job: a teacher in a primary school. Just don’t think about that type of teacher that steps into the classroom with a gloomy face, or the one that behind a severe look hides a sort of fear of children, of their exuberance and of the embarassing questions sometimes they ask. Edda Rossi
Il filo d’Arianna Instead, try to imagine that type of teacher that every morning as she enters the classroom, meet twenty or twenty-five pairs of witty eyes and gets so involved in her job that she forgets about her husband, her children, her housework, the bills to pay and everything else concerning her personal life
Il filo d’Arianna Well, I’m the second type. My name is Edda, I was born in… and live in Zola Predosa, a town 10 kms far from Bologna I live with Renzo and I have a 5-year-old grandchild. His name is Riccardino and he can think like a real philosopher; he has got the endless resources of a volcanic mind. He lives in another town, therefore we live together magical adventures as in different “episodes”.
Il filo d’Arianna Being a school teacher wasn’t for me just a job, it was much, much more. Understanding and loving every child as he or she was, not for what could have been, was a great source of joy for me. Understanding the anxieties, the eagerness, the desires, the weak sides, the strength, the aggressive potential, the self destructive pulses, the defiances…
Il filo d’Arianna And at the same time I was more and more amazed and charmed by the depth of their love, and by their mind openess
Il filo d’Arianna I believed in a teaching method which is not always the same. In other words: I believe in those teachers who uses different contents and different tools, and works on their own knowledge and skills avoiding standard protocols. This way the teacher can reach and give each pupil what he/she really needs, considering each child as unique.
Il filo d’Arianna The sort of teacher who doesn’t just “teach” but “discover knowledge” together with her pupils and applies it to real life. This way the children can really understand what they learn.
Il filod’Arianna I was tough when children would break the rules, but I was always careful and I never forgot that respect and trust for the children come first.
In conclusion, I like to sum up my school education vision with a sentence : “Never talk about lacks, neither with children nor with parents. Just talk about the strategies to cope with challenges”
Therefore it won’t be difficult to understand that trying to be faithful to my teaching methods made me look continuously for new strategies, stimulations, devices and even sly tricks to keep up the curiosity and the desire of learning in my students.
Il filo d’Arianna So as the fateful day of my retirement got nearer, every morning when I entered the school building, it became more and more difficult for me to believe that I would not walk in that school anymore as a “teacher”
Some nights I dreamt I was retired and the headmaster asked me to come back to teach. I would returned to work eagerly but at that point the dream turned into a nightmare because I could never find my classroom and everybody I met were elusive.
On the contrary the retirement party was fantastic and my colleagues gave me an unusual but superb present. It was a Himalayan trekking rucksack. They even told me that I could develop activities for their classes any time I wished to.
During the summer I picked up again the yoga lessons that I had left a few years before for lack of time. I started a new course of multi-ethnic dances and language courses of Spanish and English.
Obviously I was thinking about future trips and I wanted to be able to speak fluently during my travelling!
ANCeSCAO Associazione Nazionale dei Centri Sociali Comitati Anziani e Orti www.ancescao.it Once, a friend of mine invited me to join the NGO called ANCeSCAO. Moved by curiosity I accepted her offer. ANCeSCAO is a national association for social promotion. It coordinates all the cultural social centres, also known as “centres self-managed by senior residents”. Initially I was hesitating as I thought these were venues where people get together just to play cards, have dinner parties and dancing nights.
Then my friend told me that a renovation of the social centres was being developed. It was time for these centres to open to the young and to the families with children, to offer cultural and recreational activities such as concerts, conferences, exhibitions… Eventually, at the beginning of the school year, the doors of my school closet remained closed and the key got lost somewhere…
Il filo d’Arianna I had found a new challenge: to seed the soil to grow more availability and more acceptance of innovations among the active members of Centres
Il filo d’Arianna Enthusiastically I began to talk to other members in order to involve them in my “mission”. However, I slowly realised that they tried to get rid of me and that made me feel somehow “invisible”. It came as a great disappointment to me.
It was obvious that dealing with the elderly was not the same as dealing with children. But I was determinated to sort it out so I began to attend a communication course to improve my skills. The course lasted two years and covered relationships and mediation of conflicts, particularly useful with volunteers.
Little by little I improved the way I expressed myself in relation to other people. As a result my family life and my friendships got a great boost!
The managing skills developed in my job and the training received in the various courses I attended made me able to bring together and coordinate a group of motivated and tenacious voluntary members. Together we built a team which developed efficient strategies to organize high qualityactivities in the centres managed by the elderly.
Unfortunately, because of some selfish attitudes in the Association Board, that precious experience ceased to exist after five years of activity.
What a sad time! What could be done? Provoking further conflicts, giving up or diverting to other activities? The association had endless necessities So I started to cooperate to projects of two Provincial Commissions: the Cultural and the Training projects.
Working with these Commissions gave me the chance to reflect again on the meaning of the volunteer work. When we think of volunteers the words that come to mind are generally “Availability”, “Generosity” and “Creativity. Why not to find out the fourth dimension? “Happiness”
Perhaps because I’m aware that this activity helps keeping my brain active, fresh, flexible and I feel I need it for my well-being , I can claim that, all in all, I feel a “happy” volunteer
